For this long-time triathlete, training has helped her deal with anything life throws her way.

by John Post

For Lisa Frick, a competitor in this year’s IRONMAN World Championship, smiles have been a little hard to come by lately. She says she’s been tempted a number of times to give up racing IRONMAN and focus on other things.

Like so many athletes who’ll toe the line on Saturday, just the thought of ever coming to the Big Island was little more than pie in the sky thinking for much of Frick's adult life. You know people like her, always seem to be putting the needs of others before their own. They seem to have considerably more than 24 hours in their day as they get the same things done that you do but just seem to have one more minute to help someone else out.

At 55, Frick has been a middle school counselor for nearly 30 years and the above description fits her to a T. She also finds room in her schedule to coach cross country. As with so many of us, she learned about IRONMAN in the late 70’s, and thought it was impossible. But later in life, when she grew more confident in her athletic skills, the "maybe I could do that someday" thought first came.

"I was a swimmer and already riding miles on my ten-speed around Riverside, Calif.," she says. The only fly in the ointment she figured, was the fact that she "just can’t run."

But Frick is perhaps not the person who, in the spirit of The Princess Bride scene, can be "trifled with details." 140.6 miles? Full speed ahead.

Her first full distance event was in 2001 at IRONMAN California in Camp Pendleton before it turned into an IRONMAN 70.3. It went well. So well in fact that 12 more followed and she qualified for Hawaii.

In 2011, her partner Eric was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a variety of cancer that affects the white blood cells. She was his primary care giver and did her best to keep him positive and motivated. She started fundraising campaigns for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) that year at the NY Marathon. Thanks to family and friends, she’s raised in excess of $40,000 for Myeloma Research.

Eric passed away in June of 2016, right before Frick was scheduled to begin training for IRONMAN Louisville, the final egg in the dozen that would earn her a Legacy slot to Kona. Her grief was all-consuming, and she had little energy left for training, let alone the duties of everyday life. "I was more than willing to give it all up. But I knew that Eric wouldn’t stand for that."

Almost simultaneously, her aging parents were experiencing setbacks and hospitalizations which required a great deal of her time and any leftover energy. From somewhere deep inside, and with a personal strength she didn't know she had, Lisa found that strength to train. At first only a little. Late night rides, long solo rides and runs "where I cried all the time." She found that these solo efforts gave her the grief time she needed and that before long she actually enjoyed the time alone to work out the details of life. "And, hot dog!" she laughs, "I got in a long workout at the same time."

Frick's Kona training is done. Her parents continue to require time and care, but everybody is stable. Frick now has just a smidge of extra time to think about Eric and her fundraising goals for Kona. She thinks about Eric’s family who have strongly supported her efforts for MMRF and the gains that have been recently made with new treatments and new directions.

"I’m doing this in Eric’s name and I want everyone to know it," she says. Then she pauses and tells me she hasn't done much training for this race. Laughing, she tells me about the best advice she's received so far: "The longer you spend on the course, the more you get your money’s worth—I guess I'll be getting my money's worth!"

John Post is a six-time IRONMAN World Championship finisher and an IRONMAN Certified Coach.